Applicants claim the foreign priority benefits under 35 U.S.C. 119 of Japanese Application Serial No. 6-178708, which was filed Jul. 29, 1994. This Japanese Application and its translation are incorporated into this Application by reference.
The present invention relates to a battery pack and a connection mechanism for the battery pack and, more particularly, to a battery pack that can be detachably installed in an electric/electronic device, such as a portable personal computer, and a connection mechanism for such a battery pack.
Portable computers, such as personal notebook computers, that are made compact and light for portability, have come into wide use. Many types of portable computer designs include packaged batteries or "battery packs", which are portable personal computer, and a connection mechanism for such a battery pack.
Portable computers, such as personal notebook computers, that are made compact and light for portability, have come into wide use. Many types of portable computer designs include packaged batteries or "battery packs", which are detachably installed into the portable computer to permit operation where there are no commercial power sources available.
As shown in FIG. 11, many conventional portable computer battery packs have a plurality of terminals that are exposed on the outside of the casing of a battery pack (not shown), and a plurality of metal springs 112 that connect to the terminals of the battery pack are provided at a connection portion 110 in the portable computer.
To decrease the contact resistance between the terminals and the metal springs and to reduce heat, etc., at the contact point, the exposed area of the terminals of the battery pack must be large. However, with the above described conventional structure, when the battery pack is to be carried separately, articles made of metal, such as a chain or a key, may accidentally contact the terminals, causing a short circuit across the terminals of the battery pack.
As a security measure to shield the terminals of the battery pack so that they are not exposed, a technique is known wherewith slits or box recesses are provided in that portion of the electric/electronic device that connects to the terminal portion for the battery pack, and the terminals are located inside these recesses so that they cannot easily be contacted from the outside.
However, for those battery packs that have their electric/electronic device contact faces formed in a slit or a box shaped recess, ease of detachment and removability of conventional battery packs from the electric/electronic devices can be a problem. It would be desireable to detach and remove a battery pack from an electric/electronic device in any one of three directions; specifically, from the top, from the bottom, and from the side. However, detachment and removal of conventional battery packs can only be effected in one or two directions.